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OPTIC Signs Software Use Agreement With Government
The President’s Office of Technology and Communication (OPTIC) signed an agreement this week with Business Software Alliance (BSA) to normalize the use of its software in Public Administration.
Domingo Tavárez, director of OPTIC, said the collaboration agreement is very important for the government and the country as the Dominican Republic is in the process of opening its doors to free trade, according to a press release from the President’s Office of Information, Press and Publicity.
Mr. Tavárez said that this process of opening, especially in view of DR-CAFTA recently going into effect, obliges governments to regularize the use of software in its public administration offices. He added that this regularization implies that there can be no use of unlicensed software in any of the government offices.
Tavárez pointed out that this activity is covered under decree 615-07, declared by the Executive Branch and oriented to all public administration offices indicating their obligation to comply with all statutes of the Free Trade Agreement between the United States and the Dominican Republic.
Roger Correa, representative of BSA, said the agreement is high level and of utmost importance and that it will serve as a positive example in the Dominican Republic as well as the rest of the Latin American region. At the same time, he added that the level of cooperation in the Dominican Republic in terms of legal software use is “very rare in the rest of the world.”
Mr. Correa affirmed that, on the part of the BSA, it is estimated that if the level of software piracy dropped only 10 percentage points, the country could save nearly $50 million dollars a year in the local market, $3 million in taxes and some $30 million in terms of investment in the industrial sector.
The signing of the agreement, which was attended by Dr. Jaime Ángeles, country representative of BSA and Aideé Prieto, legal representative of OPTIC, was carried out in the Mirabal Sisters Hall of the National Palace.
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